Wednesday, January 27, 2010

By Chris Williams: According to the latest boxing news, over 24,000 tickets have already been sold after only three days for the March 13th mega fight between World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and challenger Joshua Clottey at the Dallas Cowboy stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

At this rate, the stadium could wind up being filled with as many as 60,000 screaming fans for the March 13th bout.

This is an outstanding number considering that the fight really isn’t much to get excited about because of Clottey’s lackluster resume filled with few top tier opponents. Clottey is coming off a loss to Miguel Cotto, who as most people know was just stopped in the 12th round by Pacquiao in November.

That alone would seem to be a turn off for knowledgeable boxing fans. However, a great deal of the tickets sales are obviously coming from fans of Pacquiao who careless about his opponent. The name of the victim isn’t import just as long as Pacquiao is in there fighting.

Tickets usually go fast in the first few days of being put on sale. However, if this trend were to continue at the rate that they’re being purchased, there’s a chance that the entire 100,000 seat arena could sell out for the fight. That would truly phenomenal for a fight that only has one star involved and one that really amounts to being a mismatch.

Clottey doesn’t have the credentials going into this fight to suggest that he will do anything other than lose to Pacquiao on March 13th. This is why it’s pretty exciting to see the way the tickets are being scooped up. If the tickets are being bought like this for a fight between an over-matched little known opponent like Clottey, what will the numbers be like when/if Pacquiao ever fights Floyd Mayweather? That fight will clearly sell out the entire 100,000 seat stadium in Dallas, if the Pacquiao-Clottey fight doesn’t.

Former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Antonio Margarito could end up fighting on the undercard against Carson Jones, if Margarito gets his boxing license back by the Texas Athletic Commission. Once it’s known for sure whether Margarito is going be fighting on the undercard, you can expect a huge amount of tickets to start getting bought up by boxing fans in both Texas and Mexico, where Margarito has a huge amount of fans.

Margarito lost his boxing license last year after a foreign plaster-like substance was found in his hand wraps before his bout with Shane Mosley in January 2009. However, Margarito still has a ton of fans that have stood behind him through this ordeal and will no doubt gladly purchase tickets to see him fight on March 13th at the Dallas Cowboy stadium.

Manny Pacquiao Profile

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao born December 17, 1978, more commonly known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino professional boxer.

He is currently the WBO World welterweight champion, Ring Magazine light welterweight champion, and is rated by Ring Magazine as the number 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

He is also the former WBC World lightweight champion, WBC World super featherweight champion, IBF World super bantamweight champion, and WBC World flyweight champion. Furthermore, he is the former Ring Magazine featherweight and super featherweight champion.

Joshua Clottey Profile

Joshua Clottey (born in March 16, 1976 in Accra, Ghana) is a Welterweight boxer who hails from Accra, Ghana, but now lives in the Bronx, New York. He is the former IBF Welterweight Champion.